THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ROLE OF A TOURIST GUIDE IN TOURIST DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT by ANAGO JAMES AKEEM OSHO
“The name, history and importance of a Tourist Destination could sell itself, but it takes the Tourist Guide to sell it well”.
Anago James Akeem Osho.
This statement describes the importance of a Tourist Guide in the marketing and promotion of a Tourist Destination. It should be noted that the relationship between a Tourist Guide, Tourist and Tourist Destination should be intimate, educational, emotional and spiritual. The intimacy is the relationship while the spiritual is the passion. The information in this work is basically gathered through my years of experience as a professional Tourist Guide.
Anago James Akeem Osho.
This statement describes the importance of a Tourist Guide in the marketing and promotion of a Tourist Destination. It should be noted that the relationship between a Tourist Guide, Tourist and Tourist Destination should be intimate, educational, emotional and spiritual. The intimacy is the relationship while the spiritual is the passion. The information in this work is basically gathered through my years of experience as a professional Tourist Guide.
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| Anago James Akeem Osho and International students and teachers on tour |
According to Anago James Akeem Osho, a Tourist Guide is a person who has chosen the promotion and
marketing of a Tourist product: a place, monument, object, town, village,
country, history, beach, Festival etc., as his profession and from time to time
do meet, educate and tour people; tourists or excursionist’s around the Tourist
product.
The sum
totals of attractions natural, historical, cultural or man made with services,
which will result into tourist satisfaction, are the products or commodities
the Tourist Guides sell. The relationship between the Tourist Guide and his
Tourists products should be intimate and spiritual.
A tourist Guide could speak
of an object/antiquity or a place that is for example about 2,300 years old, as
if he or she was there when the object was crafted, invented or when an event
took place. His or her ability to convey the information, successfully to the
understanding and satisfaction of the Tourists and excursionists depend on the
Tourist Guide’s knowledge of the history, place or objects.
A
professional Tourist Guide should consciously seek advance education, training
or self-education to take the role of the interpreter of nature, history and
heritage in general. The successful interpretation of art objects or cultural
history will determine the service quality provided by the Tourist Guide. The
sole objective of the Tourist Guide is the TOURISTS' SATISFACTION.
As the Tourist
Guide interprets the heritage attractions; either natural or cultural, he
becomes the establisher of intellectual (Educational) and emotional connections
between the tourist and tourist destinations.
The role of
the Tourist Guide is vital in the positive representation of a Tourist Site.
The satisfaction or fulfillment of a Tourist in a tourist destination depends
on how much information the curator, or guide is endowed with and how it is
conveyed to the tourists. The desires or quest of adventurers, excursionist or
tourists differs.
A professional Tourist Guide should try to psychologically
study and know what interest his or her tourists, and if he cannot, he or she
should do his or her duty the best way a professional will.
The intimacy
between the Tourist Guide and the Tourist products simply means how the Tourist
Guide sees his profession. There should be a relationship between the Tourist
Guide as a person and Tour Guiding as a profession.
Who is a
Tourist? Who is an excursionist? What’s the different between a Tourist and an
excursionist?
“A tourist
is a person who travels from his usual place of abode with the view of
returning in few days, weeks and months and participating in leisure and
business activities” The tourist is an important element in the travel and
tourism industry.
“An
excursionist is that person engaging in tourism activities for less than
twenty-four hours”. It is a same day visitor to a tourist site or destination
who did not occupy tourist accommodation for overnight stay. The difference
between a Tourist and an excursionist is that the tourist stays overnight in a
hotel or guesthouse while the excursionist is a day visitor.
Tourists and
Excursionists travel throughout the year but there are low and high season. So
therefore, Tour Guiding gives room for Tourist Guides to be involved in other
business activities but when the season is high and Tourists flocks in, the Tourist
Guide lace up his boots or wears his sandals, pack his knapsack and the
adventure continues.
The Tourist
Guides intimacy or relationship with his work, how much he knows, how he adhere
to the professions ethics, his passion for work, his public relations with the
Tourists, experience and training will determine how professional he or she is.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ROLES OF A
TOURIST GUIDE
1. The
character and behavior of the Tourist Guide should be credible because it is vital
in promoting and marketing a product (Tourist Destination, monuments, museums,
historical sites etc).
2. The
Tourists or Holidaymakers has a budget and are ready to spend their money but a
Tourist Guide must provide the services that are worthy and satisfactory to the
Tourists.
3. A Tourist
Guide should be satisfied with the amount agreed on by both him or her and the
Tourist and should not get greedy by devising means of extorting or exploiting
the Tourist.
4. Tourists,
especially well-traveled international Tourists know a good Tourist Guide when
they meet one, so, a professional Tourist Guide should carry out his duties
judiciously.
5. The
contact between a Tourist Guide and a Tourist could become a life long
connection but a Tourist Guide should not force it because if he or she tries
to, it may impress a negative sign to the Tourist. Such a connection could work
naturally and if not, a Tourist Guide should not force it.
6. A Tourist
Guide serves as the Ambassador to the Tourist destination, Historical Sites,
Monuments, Museums, Place or Country they promote and market and their behavior
either positive or negative, good or bad, remains in the mind of Tourists and
that may determine the type of image or impression a Tourist will have about
the Destination, Monument, Historical Sites or Country.
7. A professional Tourist Guide should be
concerned about the need for historical accuracy. There should be consistency
in information dissemination.
“False ideas
about the past may lead those who believe them to have false ideas about things
in the present also, and may result in foolish or even dangerous actions”.
The need for
accuracy is very important and concrete references should be provided if
requested for by the tourist or researcher. It is unethical and fraudulent to
change history to soothe one’s ego, propaganda or family history. It is a
heinous crime against humanity to try to change true history. Therefore, a
professional Tourist should not be involved in it.
The sources
of information about what happened in the past can be grouped into three kinds;
i. Written records
ii. Spoken
tradition or Oral history
iii. Historical
objects/Archeological discoveries
Yet, the
different type of the sources of information about what happened in the past
has its limitations in the extent to which it can give us true information.
8. A professional Tourist Guide is partly the
protector of the product he sells. He or she is the protector of the historical
sites, museums, monuments, Antiquities/objects, and Tourist destinations that
he promotes. He or she should not engage in stealing and selling of historical
objects.
9. There
should be a particular day, either monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly or yearly
that the association of Tourist Guides should meet with Tourism stake holders
like Government Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Museums managers,
Historical site Managers, Family Historians, Beach Managers, Hotel Owners,
Hotel Managers, Researchers, Archeologists, Restaurant Owners, Community
Leaders, Security Officers like the police and detectives, Boat operators,
Hospital Managers, etc. to deliberate on how to improve the Tourism Industry.
The Tourist Guides are those on the Tourism field of work who meet the tourists
regularly and has firsthand information about tourist needs, quest and desires.
The Guides
know what the tourists want to see and experience in terms of attractions,
sites, history, adventure or infrastructures. For instance, new generations of
tourists are mounting whose accommodation interests are Eco-lodges. These types
of Tourist are interested in Eco-tourism. So, a professional Tourist Guide will
create an itinerary to suite such tourist interest.
10, A
Tourist Guide should not mismanage the precious time of a Tourist.
This work is intended to expose the tour guides or aspiring tour guides into the do and don’t of tour guiding and the role of a tour guide.
This work is intended to expose the tour guides or aspiring tour guides into the do and don’t of tour guiding and the role of a tour guide.
REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. http://www.wftga.org/tourist-guiding/what-
tourist-guide
2. EN 13809 2003/ ENISO 18513 2003 Adopted by World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations: 10th International Convention: Dunblane, United Kingdom 2003
3. M. A. English, An Outline of Nigerian History, Longman, 1959, Page 2.
4. Ashamu Sewanu Fadipe, Basic principle and
practice of Tourism, pages 39, 41, Media Ace
2007.
5. Ashamu S. Fadipe, Basic principle and
practice of Tourism, page 219, Media Ace 2007
6. http://www.interpnet.com/
7. Branislav Rabotic, Professional Tourist
Guiding: The importance of Interpretation for tourist experiences, 20th Bennial
International Congress; New Trends in Tourism and hotel management, opatija
(Croatia), 06-08. 05.2010.
8. LEKELEKE:
Folk Stories, Poems, Maxims and Tourism Adventure Pictures. ISBN: 978-978-948-102-6,
Rafisho commercial Agencies, 2015.
9. Seriki Abass: Slave trade, Badagry, And the
History that refuses to die. By Anago James Akeem Osho, IOSR Journal Of
Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 21, Issue 8, Ver.1 (Aug. 2016)
PP 42-47 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845.
10.
anagoadventures.blogspot.com/ /2013/09/the-positive-and-negative-role-of.html
Anago James Akeem Osho, is an Historian, Curator, Tour Guide, Tour organizer, Author, Historic,
Cultural and Heritage conservationist.
anago.tourism@gmail.com.
anago.tourism@gmail.com.